Seattle is in King County‚ Washington‚ where Joe Biden got 75 percent of the vote in the 2020 election. King County had more than 1‚000 drug overdoses involving fentanyl in 2023. These two facts are almost certainly related‚ but which is the cause and which the effect? Or could it be that both (a) the tendency to vote for Democrats and (b) the addiction to dangerous drugs are caused by some unknown factor? Without a careful analysis of the available data to identify that unknown background factor‚ is it wrong to hazard a guess that the overdosing dopeheads and Democratic voters in King County are just plain stupid? READ MORE: The Destruction of the Family Was Not Inevitable Beyond sarcastic put-downs‚ it behooves those interested in public policy to take a look at what’s going on in places like Seattle‚ where Democrats dominate and “progressive” ideas therefore advance unhindered by any effective opposition. In the case of King County’s skyrocketing drug overdoses — which increased nearly 50 percent in just the past year — local officials have declared the problem “a public health crisis.” However‚ fentanyl is illegal‚ which means that the overdoses are also indicative of a crime problem‚ and progressives are against putting criminals in prison. After the 2020 George Floyd riots — caused‚ not coincidentally‚ by the death of a fentanyl user — the progressive outcry against “mass incarceration” was part of the general anti-law-enforcement rhetoric that incited “fiery but mostly peaceful” protests. It was claimed that black people were disproportionately imprisoned because of “systemic racism‚” and‚ it was further claimed‚ many of those inmates were guilty of nothing more than “non-violent drug offenses.” This rhetoric has now become the basis of national policy‚ e.g.‚ Biden’s recent commutation of the sentences of 11 criminals “serving disproportionately long sentences for non-violent drug offenses.” These commutations were part of “reforms that advance equal justice‚ address racial disparities‚ strengthen public safety‚ and enhance the wellbeing of all Americans‚” Biden declared. (READ MORE: Chauvin Did Not Murder George Floyd) As a matter of public policy‚ this approach only makes sense to those who know nothing about how criminals operate or law enforcement works. Habitual felons are not specialists; that is to say‚ the person trafficking in illegal drugs is also likely to be engaged in other criminal behavior. Pimps and thieves are often involved in the drug trade‚ to say nothing of the gangbangers who shoot each other in disputes over urban “turf.” Once upon a time in America‚ cops and prosecutors knew how to deal with such activity‚ a get-tough approach that included what we may call the Al Capone principle of law enforcement. Everybody knows that Al Capone and his gang were guilty of innumerable murders and other serious crimes‚ but Capone didn’t go to prison for those crimes. Instead‚ he went to prison for federal tax evasion. The principle expressed by this prosecution was simple — once you identify the habitual perpetrators of crime‚ it doesn’t really matter what charge sends them to prison. What matters is getting the bad guys off the street. For decades‚ intellectuals and activists told us that the “War on Drugs” was misguided and ineffective. However‚ if recent experience has shown us anything‚ it’s that you can’t reduce the drug problem by legalizing hitherto outlawed substances or refusing to enforce existing drug laws. Just take a look at the streets of Seattle‚ where addicts crowd the sidewalks in open-air drug markets. Is it a coincidence that Washington state was the first to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in 2012 and that now‚ more than a decade later‚ dopeheads are dying at record rates on the streets of Seattle? The criminals who were previously trafficking in marijuana didn’t decide to stop dealing drugs once marijuana was legalized. Drug dealers aren’t specialists‚ after all‚ and even with legalization‚ black-market marijuana sales continue‚ outside the taxed and regulated state-licensed cannabis shops. The same criminal who sells you weed will also be happy to supply you with fentanyl‚ cocaine‚ methamphetamine‚ or MDMA. The cause-and-effect questions about the correlations between (a) voting for Democrats and (b) disastrous outcomes like the drug problem in Seattle are matters of national consequence. The progressive policy agenda that tolerates — nay‚ that enables — the squalid scenes on the streets of Seattle and other Democrat-run cities is far-reaching in its ambitions. Even while urban “blue zones” turn into crime-ridden hellholes‚ the people responsible for these disasters lecture us about their plans to “save democracy” and‚ indeed‚ to “save the planet.” (RELATED: A Trashy Speech by a Trashy President: Biden Takes on Valley Forge) In one of the all-time great moments in the history of televised political debates‚ Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently confronted California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom with what instantly became known as the San Francisco “poop map”: “This is a map of San Francisco. There’s a lot of plots on that. You may be asking‚ what is that plotting? Well‚ this is an app where they plot the human feces that are found on the streets of San Francisco‚” DeSantis said‚ holding up the geographic depiction of the city smeared in shades of brown. Democrats don’t seem to mind if the streets of their cities are littered with discarded hypodermic needles and other detritus. They have more important priorities‚ like making sure restaurants don’t provide plastic straws to their customers. This is not a joke. In 2018‚ Seattle became “the first major U.S. city to ban single-use plastic straws and utensils in food service.” Think about that for a minute. Police in Seattle are patrolling restaurants to enforce the city’s plastic utensil ban‚ even while the city’s “progressive” policies require cops to ignore the junkies shooting up on the sidewalks. Peddlers of fentanyl go about their deadly business unmolested‚ but a restaurant owner could go to prison for giving his customer a plastic straw. How many exclamation marks do you want me to put after a sentence like that? It is difficult to express in words how crazy Democrats have become. What can explain this madness? Thomas Sowell once outlined it as The Vision of the Anointed — the belief that what matters in public policy is not practical consequences but rather the expression of good intentions. This vision turns politics into a narcissistic competition in which support for “progressive” ideas is considered symbolic of one’s moral and intellectual superiority‚ without regard for the efficacy of the resulting policies. Even when progressive policies produce disaster — e.g.‚ the squalor in cities like Seattle — the people who vote for such policies still cling to the vision that tells them they are more enlightened and caring than their opponents and critics who point out the failures of their policies. It would be bad enough if these failures were merely local in their impact. Watching once-prosperous cities turn into crime-plagued nightmares — whether in Seattle or Portland‚ Chicago or Baltimore — is unpleasant‚ but people who want to avoid local disasters perpetrated by advocates of “social justice” can simply move away from Democrat-controlled cities. What happens‚ however‚ when urban progressives gain control of entire states? This was the point DeSantis was making in his debate with Newsom‚ namely‚ that the former San Francisco mayor has presided over California’s startling decline since becoming governor. We may stipulate that Newsom himself is not entirely responsible for this decline‚ which was underway long before he became governor in 2019. Nevertheless‚ it cannot be denied that the progressive agenda is the basic cause of most problems in California‚ a state where a majority of voters have chosen Democrats in every presidential election since 1996. Democrats control the state legislature and every statewide office in California‚ where Joe Biden got 63 percent of the vote in 2020. Is anyone surprised to learn that (a) the state now has a record $68 billion budget deficit‚ and (b) it is now losing population as fed-up residents leave the state? Eventually‚ however‚ as the cancer of progressivism spreads‚ destroying cities and states‚ the health of the nation is threatened — which is‚ after all‚ why Joe Biden is in the White House. Go through the 2020 election results state-by-state and a pattern becomes clear. In every “swing” state that tilted to Biden‚ Trump would have won were it not for the overwhelming tsunami of Democratic votes in major cities. For example‚ in Georgia‚ where the official margin of victory was less than 12‚000 votes (0.23 percent of the approximately 5 million votes in the state)‚ Biden’s margin of victory in Fulton County (Atlanta) was more than 160‚000 votes. Which is to say‚ the Democrats in Atlanta won and the rest of Georgia lost. Something similar was true regarding Philadelphia versus the rest of Pennsylvania‚ Milwaukee versus the rest of Wisconsin‚ and so on. Democrat-controlled cities exercised a decisive influence in putting Biden in the White House‚ and‚ therefore‚ the preferences of urban progressives control the policy agenda of the administration. No matter how much Biden tries to portray himself as a blue-collar “regular guy” favoring commonsense policies‚ his election was the result of the Democratic Party’s urban dominance‚ and the agenda of the Biden administration owes much less to common sense than to the kind of ideologues who think it is good policy to legalize drugs‚ ban plastic straws‚ and turn loose violent felons in the name of “social justice.” What is really at stake in this year’s election is whether the American people will wake up and stop this insanity before it destroys our nation. READ MORE from Robert Stacy McCain: American Journalism Is Decadent and Depraved Staying Sane in the Era of Rainbow Flag Totalitarianism The post America’s ‘Social Justice’ Nightmares Have Only Intensified appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

A week before the 1980 election‚ Ronald Reagan closed his debate with President Jimmy Carter with some of the most memorable questions in campaign history: “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago?” A tight election turned into a Republican romp. READ MORE from Steven Greenhut: Latest Evidence of a Death Spiral in Newsom’s California Since then‚ the “are you better or worse off” question has become a staple of presidential campaigns‚ especially in times of rampant inflation and job loss. According to a recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll‚ 55 percent of Americans — including 62 percent of independents and 21 percent of Democrats — believe they are worse off now than they were during the last administration. Data shows cooling inflation‚ but Americans remain surly about their economic prospects. Against this backdrop‚ it’s odd that President Joe Biden would continue to look toward modern-day California for his economic inspiration given its embrace of labor policies that drive up the cost of living and eliminate jobs — and‚ most decidedly‚ haven’t made us better off. Yet that’s where we are‚ as Biden moved forward on Tuesday with a federal labor rule that‚ as Reuters explains‚ could “upend [the] gig economy” by limiting the ability of companies to use independent contractors. Specifically‚ the new U.S. Department of Labor regulation overturns a Trump-era rule that allowed businesses to treat a wider range of workers as contractors‚ thus exempting them from paying the minimum wage‚ Social Security taxes‚ mandated overtime‚ and other benefits required for employees. “We are confident that this rule will help create a level playing field for businesses [and] protect workers from being denied the right to fair pay‚” said acting Labor Secretary Julie Su‚ who as a top California labor official implemented a similar policy in California. The president might not worry about a 44-year-old political debate‚ but he should ponder the results of a policy implemented only five years ago and overseen by his own acting labor secretary. In 2019‚ Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 5‚ which codified a state Supreme Court ruling known as the Dynamex decision that banned the use of independent contractors except in limited circumstances. The federal rule wouldn’t exactly impose AB5 on the nation. But‚ as the New York Times explained‚ “employers tend to follow the department’s guidance‚ and the determination could have influence in other contexts and jurisdictions.” It certainly pushes the country in California’s direction. With AB5‚ the California Legislature had targeted ridesharing companies such as Uber‚ Lyft‚ and DoorDash‚ but the fallout was widespread. It was hatched by unions eager to protect their industries from competition. Supporters claimed its passage would expand benefits and improve working conditions‚ but it’s not hard to guess what happened next. Companies quickly shed jobs. AB5 threatened creative endeavors that relied on freelance writers‚ musicians‚ and photographers. Rideshare drivers — who typically relied on these gigs between their other work and enjoyed the flexible hours — found their extra income threatened. Innovative tech companies faced an existential threat. Because the law applied to truck drivers‚ it contributed to massive backups at the Port of Oakland that further disrupted supply chains. The state even doubled-down on enforcement in the midst of COVID-19-era “stay at home” rules‚ thus limiting freelance income sources for people when they desperately needed it and hobbling delivery services that provided groceries to people who were hunkered down. The Legislature ultimately exempted 100-plus industries from the rules‚ and voters exempted rideshare drivers (although the latter is still in the courts)‚ but it caused blowback. The Legislature didn’t seem to learn from the debacle. Newsom last year signed a law that raises the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour and creates a sectoral-bargaining council to regulate restaurant working conditions. In anticipation of the April pay hike‚ fast-food restaurants already are shedding workers. California progressives will do what they do‚ but it’s unfathomable that the president — down in the polls and struggling to boost the economy before November — is not grasping the obvious message: You can’t make those of lower income better off by regulating their jobs out of existence. Economic news out of the state is discouraging. Its progressive tax system makes the budget overly reliant on capital-gains taxes and always susceptible to boom-and-bust cycles. The Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts an unparalleled $68 billion budget deficit. As CalMatters reported‚ “California is ending the year facing a multitude of economic challenges‚ including a budget deficit‚ flat tax revenue‚ sluggish job growth and massive unemployment insurance debt.” Amid this economic malaise‚ Californians continue to vote with their feet‚ thanks largely to its punishing tax burdens‚ high housing costs‚ and declining quality of life. For several years now‚ the state’s population has declined significantly‚ led by middle-income people seeking better economic prospects. Recent news suggests the state’s wealthiest residents have now joined the exodus. The situation isn’t getting better at the lower end of the economic spectrum‚ despite the state’s ever-expanding panoply of social services and income-transfer programs. California has the highest poverty rate in the nation‚ adjusted for the cost of living. Californians certainly aren’t feeling better off now than in the past‚ so Biden might want to rethink his labor policies lest he suffer the fate of Carter. Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org. READ MORE: Biden Lashes Out at the Half of the Country That Refuses to Vote for Him World War III Is Coming‚ and Senile Joe Doesn’t Care The post By Echoing Newsom‚ Biden Risks Becoming Carter appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

In June 2020‚ as peaceful protesters burned city after city as part of their ongoing Summer of Love‚ Europe watched on warily as the love threatened to spread across the pond and soon did‚ in the United Kingdom‚ Italy‚ Belgium‚ Switzerland‚ Spain‚ and‚ of course‚ France‚ a country even more prone to outbursts of protester-love than our own — by my count‚ about once every two years in recent times‚ thanks usually to scrapes between police and young Muslim/immigrant youths. READ MORE from Erik Lewis: The Trials of Salman Rushdie In keeping with France’s long tradition of tolerating protesters‚ in this case 15‚000 of them who’d gathered beneath the Eiffel Tower‚ and perhaps fearing that the lovers might decide once again to torch Paris‚ French President Emmanuel Macron broke a long‚ uncomfortable silence and addressed the nation. In a televised speech‚ he articulated his support for the protesters’ message and affirmed his government’s commitment to stand against “racisme‚ antisémitisme‚ et discrimination‚” while adding‚ crucially‚ that there would be no erasure of historical monuments or renaming of buildings as was happening stateside‚ where‚ taking a page from Mao and his Cultural Revolution‚ the Lovers‚ not content with smashing storefronts and throwing Molotov cocktails‚ were turning their savage affections on culturo-historical fixtures and works of art. Statues and monuments were maimed‚ defaced‚ toppled‚ officially because said works supposedly depicted‚ or represented‚ things the mob did not love: historical racism‚ sexism‚ misogyny‚ et al. Before too long the distinction between Loved and Unloved broke down‚ and the Lovers started smashing monuments to progressives. Statues of abolitionists and minority and women’s rights advocates were either damaged or toppled simply because … well‚ they just looked old-fashioned and were‚ therefore‚ undeserving of Love. “There are no historians in a mob‚” said Fox News host Dana Perino as the carnage unfolded. That is true. In fact‚ a key aspect of all totalitarian movements is lack of love for art and culture‚ save for that select sliver of cultural expressions that love the State and show it unrestrainedly. A week after Macron’s speech‚ the Paris morning dawned to find a statue of Voltaire‚ theretofore perched serenely in a Left Bank garden‚ covered in red paint. Almost instantly after the statue’s defacement‚ left-wingers took to the internet praising Voltaire’s paint-bombing as a necessary and long-overdue statement of Love and taking shots at the grand old man of French letters for his Judeophobia and his profiting from the slave trade‚ even though the very same charges can be made about Harvard‚ Yale‚ and a great many other liberal institutions and heroes. In fact‚ some of the people who wrote these attacks on Voltaire are presently busy filling cyberspace with rose-colored prose on behalf of Hamas while eviscerating Israel. O selective outrage! O twisted love! As a Voltaire fan‚ art-lover‚ and Francophile‚ it hurt‚ on a personal level‚ to see the attack on Voltaire‚ which represented not just the defacement of one of the West’s great intellectual heroes but an all-too-literal embodiment of the sort of know-nothingness and savagery that has come to define today’s Left. That the vandalism was praised by some both inside and outside France was even more disheartening. It seemed to mark a new low point in the decline of Western civilization. The Age of Reason had become the Age of Unreason‚ the Age of the Mob‚ fueled not by civil discourse and debate but by blind rage and bestial impulses‚ with so-called intellectuals leading the charge. “Men made stupid by education‚” said Wilde‚ a quip that could just have easily come from the hand of Voltaire. Many on the French left have long loathed Voltaire as the embodiment of the Old Guard‚ the so-called patriarchy‚ and his dominance over the Republic of Letters and la République itself. Voltaire’s nemesis‚ Jean-Jacques Rousseau‚ a man unforgettably described by my undergrad politics professor as “the patron saint of all leftists” and “the great liberal whacko who started the dadblame French Revolution‚” is much more highly favored by today’s Left‚ and it’s little wonder why. At a time when most other philosophers were debating bigger‚ more important ideas like freedom and forms of government‚ Rousseau was hung up on feelings‚ on equity and inequities‚ class warfare … and Love. He held that humans were innately good and that society makes us bad (where have we heard that before?). It was Rousseau‚ the original proto-Marxist‚ who drew the plans for the modern welfare state‚ and who made “inequality” a centerpiece of his philosophy. In his memoir Confessions‚ Rousseau recounts visiting a prostitute and weeping as he realized that society would never see her essential worth‚ as he did. Whatever else‚ Rousseau had Empathy‚ that vaunted and oft-manipulated favorite buzzword of today’s Left. Seen in this light‚ it makes sense then that Rousseau’s statute was left unharmed‚ while poor old Voltaire‚ the seemingly peevish‚ elitist aristocrat with the pouf hairdo and the attitude‚ got paint-bombed‚ one of only two statues in the city to receive this unlovable treatment. For Rousseau‚ mankind’s immediate task must be to return to the State of Nature‚ an Eden-like garden of perfection and delight that even he readily admitted had never existed nor ever would‚ yet still he was convinced we should try to find this elusive fantasyland. But how‚ since it existed nowhere outside Rousseau’s own mind? A strange and most romantic notion. That’s what Rousseau was above all else: a Romantic‚ in the purest and most dangerous sense. II Voltaire first encountered Rousseau’s crackpot ideas in the latter’s 1755 essay Discourse on Inequality‚ in which Rousseau attacked private property ownership as the root of evil (another familiar chord) and argued that the inequality that resulted from property ownership could only be remedied by forsaking all pretense of civilization and becoming more like animals‚ something his followers would take‚ and are taking‚ him up on. Five years earlier he’d won an essay prize at Dijon‚ where I would study more than 250 years later‚ although‚ alas‚ without prizes. Perhaps accustomed by now to being treated as a serious thinker‚ Roo‚ as I call him‚ made the fatal mistake of sending his savage little book to the older‚ wiser‚ highly cultured Voltaire‚ who was not amused: “I have received your new book against the human race‚” Voltaire wrote‚ “and thank you for it. Never was such a cleverness used in the design of making us all stupid. One longs‚ in reading your book‚ to walk on all fours. But as I have lost that habit for more than sixty years‚ I feel unhappily the impossibility of resuming it.” (READ MORE from Erik Lewis: Canceling Philip Roth … And His Biographer) No love lost there. Rousseau wrote to Voltaire‚ “I hate you.” Then‚ as if with a tinge of guilt‚ he added‚ “But I hate you like a man still worthier to have loved you.” Cue Mendelssohn. Rousseau’s creepy brand of love would grow more destructive with time‚ as evidenced by his falling out with Hume‚ a once-beloved friend whom he soon viciously turned on‚ accusing him of all sorts of treacheries‚ including trying to have him assassinated. Roo’s final book‚ the rather pitiful Reveries of the Solitary Walker‚ is full of paranoid musings of obsessive love and love lost. His fragile mental and physical states were not helped‚ I contend‚ by his being run over by a galloping Great Dane one day while taking a walk‚ an event he describes in harrowing and rather pathetic detail in Reveries. I asked philosopher-teacher Simon Critchley in his Brooklyn living room some years ago if Rousseau was as crazy in real life as he seems in his writings. “He was quite bonkers‚” said Critchley‚ a sentiment echoed by others. Rousseau does “not pretend to be rational‚” Bertrand Russell wrote in the 1940s. Neither do his followers‚ as they demonstrated in dozens of cities across the U.S. and Europe during the Summer of Love/Winter of Hate. Rage‚ not reason‚ drives these state-of-nature seekers‚ reflecting the psychotic nature of their ideas and those of their designer. You see‚ progressivism is a Dionysian rather than an Apollonian belief system. Virtue and Knowledge‚ not to mention the arts and sciences‚ key aspects of the Apollonian spirit and both which Rousseau expressly rejected as holding no benefit for man‚ are definitionally Apollonian‚ while the Dionysian relies on animal instinct‚ passions‚ chaos‚ pleasure‚ the erotic‚ the irrational‚ the insane. The former values order and logic; the latter‚ pleasure and feeling. The former seeks to build; the latter‚ tear down. And it’s the difference between Rousseau and Voltaire: the culture-hater versus the culture-lover; art collector vs. art-destroyer; realist vs. romantic; civilized vs. barbarian. I’ll take the Party of Humanity over Hamas’ child-raping “Party of God” any day. The fact is‚ for his age‚ Voltaire was astonishingly progressive. He spoke out against torture‚ witch hunts‚ book-burnings‚ religious dogma and bigotry‚ war‚ hypocrisy‚ the privilege and corruption of the ruling classes‚ and even capital punishment‚ something not even the bleeding-heart Rousseau would do. In his 20s‚ Voltaire was thrown in the Bastille for writing satirical poetry against the nobility. In his 30s‚ he was beaten up and exiled to England‚ yet again for insults against noblemen. In his 40s‚ his books were burned‚ and not for the last time. And for all talk about Voltaire and the slave trade‚ most of his wealth came not from slavery but from lottery winnings. I guess soon his detractors will say the lottery was tied to slavery too. Haskell Block writes in his excellent 1956 study that “Voltaire is always our contemporary‚ and never less so than he is today” in his “assertion of human brotherhood and the essential dignity of all men.… He may not have been a saint‚ but there can be no doubt that in his fearless dedication to the rights of others and in his constant struggle to liberate men from the bondage of closed systems of whatever sort‚ he stands forth as one of the great champions of humanity.” This is what anti-Voltairists never mention in their virtue-signaling diatribes. They don’t mention‚ in their haste to brand Voltaire a racist‚ that Voltaire frequently hailed non-White peoples as examples of civility and humanity. We know that he venerated Chinese and Indian cultures. Native peoples‚ too‚ as he made all too clear in his 1767 his novella L’Ingénu‚ performed in Paris in 1768 as the comic opera Le Huron‚ about a Huron Indian who goes to France and is exposed to the bizarre fashions of Europeans‚ a setup Voltaire uses to blast what he perceived as the bigotry‚ corruption‚ fanaticism‚ and intolerance of Western ways. (READ MORE: The Delightful Voltaire) The late‚ great scholar of the Enlightenment Peter Gay writes in his book The Party of Humanity that Voltaire exuded “a passion for humanity and decency‚ a hatred of fanaticism and stupidity.” Unlike the provincial Rousseau‚ Voltaire was a Man of the World‚ a true cosmopolitan. In the words of Islam scholar Ibn Warraq‚ Voltaire was “a universalist who was also perfectly aware and appreciative of cultural differences.” In fact‚ tolerance is one of Voltaire’s most frequent themes‚ the way it was among modern liberals till about twenty years ago‚ when they decided mere tolerance wouldn’t get the job done and dumped it in favor of D.E.I.‚ canceling‚ deplatforming‚ blacklisting‚ and systematic cultural erasure. I’ll take the Party of Humanity over Hamas’ child-raping “Party of God” any day. Voltaire would’ve‚ too‚ and I’m happy to defend his legacy in these un-Enlightened times. The post When Voltaire Fell Victim to France’s Woke Mob appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

WASHINGTON — Be careful what you wish for‚ the saying goes. You just might get it. During a Democratic primary debate in 2019‚ Joe Biden said that if he were elected president‚ he would invite migrants seeking asylum to surge at the border: “If you want to flee and you are fleeing oppression‚ then come.” Many saw it as an invitation for those who want to live in America to flout federal immigration law. Because it was. READ MORE: Joe Biden and the Coming Domestic Martyrdom Operations On Monday‚ nearly four years after Biden made that statement‚ his Homeland Security secretary‚ Alejandro Mayorkas‚ stood before reporters in Eagle Pass‚ Texas‚ where illegal border crossings have hit record numbers. There were nearly 2.5 million migrant encounters along the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2023. In December‚ there were some 302‚000 encounters. According to a recent CBS News/YouGov poll‚ 45 percent of Americans consider the situation at the Southwest border a crisis‚ while 30 percent see it as “very serious.” An understanding public is watching cable TV and getting nervous. Mayorkas blamed a “broken system‚” not his department’s failure to enforce federal law. “Congress has failed to act‚” he said. The Biden White House loves to blame House Republicans when it can’t get a job done. But Democrats failed to pass so-called comprehensive immigration reform in 2021‚ when Democrats controlled the White House‚ Senate‚ and House of Representatives. When a reporter challenged Mayorkas by noting it was “easy” to enter the United States illegally‚ Mayorkas bristled. Those who cross the border and encounter immigration authorities‚ Mayorkas offered‚ are “released into immigration enforcement proceedings.” “He comes up with these euphemisms to make it sound like it’s some kind of legal process‚” Jessica Vaughan‚ director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies‚ responded. But if the legal process were serious‚ you wouldn’t see caravans heading to Eagle Pass. “No one has found a way to make them enforce the law‚” Vaughan said of the political class. “They know they can get away with it for another year. There’s no reason for them to stop.” There’s clearly a difference of opinion here. Vaughan sees a blob that doesn’t want to enforce the law; Mayorkas attributed the mass of migrants at the border to a world that is experiencing “an unprecedented number of displaced people fleeing poverty‚ authoritarian regimes‚ homes destroyed by extreme weather events‚ corruption and violence.” While Mexico used to be the most common country of origin‚ the Pew Research Center reported‚ the population of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico dropped by 900‚000 — to 4.1 million — from 2017 to 2021. The new waves are coming from Central America‚ the Caribbean‚ South America‚ Asia‚ Europe‚ and sub-Saharan Africa. The family ties that spurred illegal immigration in the past aren’t there. “Not everyone is a taxi driver from Turkey‚” Vaughan noted. “There are people who are coming here for dangerous reasons.” I want to be very clear about this. Most immigrants who come here are motivated by a desire for a better life and a safe place to raise a family. Back in 2019‚ were they all‚ as Biden suggested‚ “fleeing oppression”? No. And he knew it. But he also knew he had to soft-pedal his open-door inclinations. And this is the result. Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The post Biden Urged Oppressed to Cross Border. Now There Are Caravans. appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Among my daily readings online‚ I include The American Spectator‚ the Washington Post‚ and the Washington Times. I recently came across an interesting piece in the Post regarding the new phone etiquette. I was fascinated to find that merely picking up the phone and calling someone is no longer considered to be socially acceptable. You must text the person first and warn him or her that you will be interrupting their sacred cyberspace with an actual phone call. I also learned that leaving a voicemail is now considered to be gauche. Human voice contact is something to be avoided these days. This was also much a revelation to me. Since I don’t text‚ I am in the dark about these new rules or what kind of perverse individuals would make them up. READ MORE: Taylor Swift Makes Person of the Year — Why? I do not consider myself to be a total luddite. When I was on active duty in the military in the 1990s‚ I directed experimentation with then-cutting-edge technologies‚ such as robotics‚ small drones‚ and non-lethal weapons. I use my laptop to write articles such as these and find it much easier for my arthritic fingers to manipulate the keys than I do texting‚ as I never got much beyond hunt and peck on a typewriter. Spell-check and backspace are really neat for editing. That said‚ I think the smartphone and texting are the Devil’s work‚ and quite possibly the end of civilization as we have known it since the Renaissance. The art of letter writing went the way of the Dodo when the information age dawned. Phone calls and eventually emails were much faster and more efficient than snail mail. I liked the fact that I could send complicated communications with friends and family and get a near-immediate response‚ and I still do. However‚ I am appalled to go to a restaurant and see two people sitting at the same table and not talking‚ just texting. I am never sure if they are texting each other or some people not in the same room. Conversation is rapidly becoming a lost art‚ and the emoji is replacing literature as a form of expressing feelings. Civilization went off the rails when something as simple as a 15 second speed dial became a long Kabuki dance. I text you‚ and you text me back to tell me it’s OK to call. I wait until I get a text back before calling. Somebody has too much time on their hands to make this nonsense up. Everyone I might remotely want to talk to socially has me on caller ID. If they don’t want to talk or are busy‚ they merely decline to answer‚ and their voice mail takes a message. How hard can this be? As we move to a paperless society‚ I am seriously wondering if our descendants will know if there was a civilization after 2000. I can imagine some anthropologist by 2224 saying‚ “It is amazing that they could leave artifacts on the moon without having a written language.” Places like the World Trade Center and the Gateway Arch will raise questions of how an illiterate civilization could construct such wonders without the benefit of sophisticated means of communication. Perhaps there will be a Rosetta Stone–like thing that that will translate emojis into written language so that posterity can decode us. Having been born in the first half of the last century and become something of a curmudgeon‚ I don’t personally care if I call someone‚ and they are offended if I don’t text before I do. I actually don’t call too much because most of my friends still alive don’t care anymore than I‚ and the children and grandkids won’t have to put up with me much longer anyway. What goes around generally comes around. The flowering of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment allowed people to again appreciate the goodness of such things as reading‚ writing‚ and bathing. It is interesting to contemplate the curiosity of some 13th-century archeologist finding the mummified remains of a modern millennial sitting in his mom’s basement‚ clutching a game console with a bag of petrified chips at his side‚ and wondering what strange rites he was performing when he died. Hopefully‚ someone can teach me to leave the text equivalent of an answering machine message that says: “Hi‚ I can’t take your text right now or ever. If you want to contact me‚ give me a call or send an email. If I’m not dead‚ I’ll answer or get back to you as soon as I can.” The post The End of Civilization Starts With a Phone Call appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

We Won the Cold War. Can We Win the 'Economic War' Caused By the Border Crisis?

Biden-Media 'Insurrection' Big Lie

Populist Politicians Aren't So Divided on Economic Issues‚ and That's Bad News

The Unforgivable Sin: On the Exploitation of Innocence

A Hill to Die On